I’m currently working on data regarding online, elearning cooperative and blended learning initiative course data across the 2009 and 2010 academic years.  We just started with the data, but it appears that a large percentage of resident students are at least taking one online course in their academic career, with some taking several elearning courses.

With that trend in mind, I recently read an interesting Chronicle article, detailing the experiences of three students attending universities that are investing heavily in elearning.  I’m unsure where PSU will be in 2015 with online learning, but some of the trends listed in the article include:

• The University System in Maryland is requiring students to take 12 credits in ‘alternate learning mode’ courses, which includes online courses.
• By 2015, several Minnesota universities are pushing to have 25% of the college credits earned by students moved to an online format.
• Over half of Central Florida’s 56,000 students are taking an online course this year.  What might be even more interesting is that over 2,500 are taking blended, online and face-to-face courses at the same time.

The quotes from students provide some additional food for thought.  Some students claim the online courses are “easy As”, while other students struggle to adapt to an online format, suffering mediocre grades during their first online experience.